kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Nick Østergaard <oe.nick@xxxxxxxxx>]

You can achieve exactly this with the move exact and array tools.

2016-04-13 8:16 GMT+02:00 David Godfrey <info@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Hi Chris,
>
> A rotation of the selection is not the same as a rotation of the
> individual components.
> Consider you already have the components roughly in a grid, and you need
> to rotate them by 20 degrees.
> Rotating the selection means you have to do major repositioning of every
> component to get them back in the correct area.
>
> However rotating the components within the selection means they are
> still in about the right position, so only minor placement adjustments
> are required.
> These minor adjustments can likely be made using the align and
> distribute tools
>
> I Agree half-implemented features are bad, better to update them and
> properly implement.
>
> Regards
> David G
>
> On 13/04/16 08:53, Chris Pavlina wrote:
>> GAL already has this. Block or multi select, Ctrl-M for "move exactly" (or use
>> the context menu), and type an angle. Just rotates the whole selection, then
>> you can place your rotated resistors.
>>
>> Considering legacy is on its way out, I'd rather not keep crusty old
>> half-implemented legacy features around to require maintenance.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 08:50:38AM +0800, David Godfrey wrote:
>>> Hmm,
>>>
>>> I'v not used it on Kicad but the ability to change the orientation of an
>>> arbitrary selection of footprints is something I've used many times in
>>> Altium.
>>>
>>> Ideally you want to be able to set an absolute orientation, and also a
>>> relative (to current) angle adjustment.
>>>
>>> This is especially useful when designing boards like LED matrices and
>>> wanting to put all resisters on a specific angle (eg: 21.3deg).
>>> You can then do an array alignment with the same outer limit you used
>>> for your LED alignment.
>>> Then move the group of resistors into position relative to the LED's.
>>>
>>> Now running your tracks becomes trivial.
>>>
>>> Without the ability to auto adjust the orientation on a selection of
>>> parts the job becomes long and tedious.
>>> Some of the PCB's I've done this on have over 1000 LED's and resistors,
>>> and generally you need to orient both the resistors and the LED's
>>>
>>> So in summary, I'd like to keep the ability to do this, but on a
>>> selection instead of globally.
>>> And being able to alter it as an absolute angle, or as a relative to
>>> current (prefix the new angle with + or - to get relative movement)
>>> would be beneficial.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> David G
>>>
>>> On 13/04/16 06:40, Chris Pavlina wrote:
>>>> I wonder how many of you are even aware of DIALOG_ORIENT_FOOTPRINTS. It's
>>>> hidden in the Secret Menu in pcbnew (the spread-and-place) one, menu item
>>>> Orient All Footprints. The code hasn't been touched since 2010 except a few
>>>> cleanups, and it seems really simplistic and useless to me. I was going to
>>>> upgrade it to floating-point angle entry like everything else, but....
>>>>
>>>> Does _anybody_ even use this? It seems utterly useless. I have no idea when
>>>> you'd want to globally apply an orientation to footprints. Can I just tear it
>>>> out?  :P
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>>> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp